"I don’t play rock'n'roll, just raw and naked blues." (Mississippi Fred McDowell)

Fred McDowell was a tough one. Born in 1904, a life spent working in the fields and playing for a few dollars on the weekends, on the street or at some village party. He started with a guitar at 14 and, as he himself said, "I started using a steak bone as a slide." This guy would swallow you and all your expensive useless pedals in one gulp.

We’ll never thank Alan Lomax enough for recording McDowell. Since he was discovered (and not rediscovered, like Skip James, Son House, or Mississippi John Hurt), in 1959, many began to notice Fred. And just listening to this record clarifies why: a slide guitar sharper than the Miracle Blade, a smoke-blackened voice spitting out lyrics that many would go on to copy. Do titles like "61 Highway" ring a bell?

It's 1970 when good old Fred enters the studio for the last time before being diagnosed with cancer that will lead to his death, firing his last cartridges. And many would fall under the blows of this old bastard, who couldn’t care less about modernizing his sound. He's played this all his life and knows he does it better than anyone else.

Like many bluesmen, he takes a bit from everyone and reworks it in his own style. Standards abound: the classic "Baby Please Don’t Go"; "Glory Hallelujah" is nothing but "Since I’ve Laid my Burden Down," stripped of the sweetness of the more famous version by Mississippi John Hurt; "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl," by Sonny Boy Williamson; this particular version struck me: his voice sounds like that of a mature man who hasn’t lost the habit of chasing young girls, with a perpetual desire to impregnate one.

But the real gems are the pieces written by McDowell: "Write Me a Few of Your Lines," "Kokomo Me Baby" (both later covered by Bonnie Raitt). But above all "61 Highway," and here we are talking about legend. Just listen to the words to realize that Dylan, in the end, did nothing but take a certain type of language to its extreme consequences, deforming and refracting it, perhaps with the help of a "handful of rain." But the premises were already there.

The only flaw: the menacing "You Gotta Move" is missing, perhaps the most famous song of old Fred, thanks to the cover made by the Rolling Stones on "Sticky Fingers" (which McDowell said he appreciated a lot).

If you want a blues record with guts, now you know where to look: "just call for Mississippi Fred McDowell"

"I started school one Monday morning,

Lord, I burned my books away.

I started school one Monday morning, baby

I burned my books away.

I wrote a note to my teachers:

"I’m gonna try 61 today"

Tracklist and Lyrics

01   Baby Please Don't Go (04:48)

02   Good Morning Little School Girl (04:26)

03   Kokomo Me Baby (03:00)

04   That's All Right Baby (05:04)

05   Red Cross Store (04:04)

06   Everybody's Down On Me (09:12)

07   61 Highway (04:43)

Lord, that 61 Highway
It the longest road I know
Lord, that 61 Highway
It the longest road I know
She run from New York City
Run right by my baby's do'

Well, there some folks said them
Greyhound buses don't run
Lordy, some folks said them
Greyhound buses don't run
Lord, just go to West Memphis, baby
Look down Highway 61

I said, please
I said, please see somebody for me


I said ple-eee-eee-ase
Please see somebody for me
If you see my baby
Tell her she's alright with me

(guitar)

Lord, if I should hap'n a-die, baby
Before you think my time have come
Lord, if I should hap'n a-die, baby
'Fore you think my time have come
I want you bury my body
Down on Highway 61.

~

08   Glory Hallelujah (02:47)

09   Jesus Is On The Mainline (03:38)

Loading comments  slowly